Colton's Sleep Odyssey

In addition to all the other stuff in September that I already blogged about, a significant amount of time was dedicated to trying to figure out how to get Colton to sleep through the night.  As I have documented extensively here, the boy hasn't slept consistently through the night in YEARS and it was starting to take its toll on me.  We'd hoped that having his tonsils removed would help, but alas, this was not the case.  With our high end deductible met for the year and only one month left before it "started over" again, we decided it was time to bring in any and all professional help that we could find.

So Craig and I met with a shrink several times to discuss the issue.  He recommended that when Colton wake us up, we climb into bed with him and rub his back and soothe him to sleep.  We tried this for a couple weeks and, if anything, it made the problem worse. 

As we were trying this out, I also met with a sleep specialist (an MD type of doctor, not a psych type of doctor) who'd been recommended by our pediatrician.  I spent two and a half hours talking with her PA (who was brand new and being trained and not catching on too quickly, if you catch my drift) and then with the actual doctor, so it was about the longest appointment I have ever had with a medical person.  Including some of the times I've given birth!  So, points for being thorough, but MAN that was a drag.  Also, I had Theo with me, because it was the last day I was babysitting him.  Fortunately, Craig's parents had just barely returned home from a trip to Houston and were generous enough to take Camille during the appointment.  I think if I'd been trying to keep her happy in that tiny room the entire time, too, I would have died.  As it was, Theo fell asleep in my arms and slept for half the appointment and the only real trouble-maker was Colton!  Go figure.

Anyway, the sleep doctor, Dr. Yu, recommended that we come up with a program of rewards for good sleeping that were "not too easy and not too hard, not based on food, and not too expensive."  Easy peasy, right?  Fortunately, she gave me some concrete ideas of what that might look like and we finally settled on doing a sticker chart to keep track of his successes, and then a trip to the dollar store with just Mom or Dad when he accumulated three stickers.  She also said we needed to put him to bed later.  I've usually put little kids to bed at 7pm, and big kids at 8:30, but she pointed out that since he spends two hours popping out of bed and aggravating me (she referred to this as "curtain calls"), we may as well just keep him up until the time he normally falls asleep.

As a side note, during her exam, she looked in his ears and declared them to be "clean and dry."  And I almost teared up because that was the first time a doctor has EVER said that about Colton's ears!  EVERY SINGLE OTHER TIME HE'S BEEN EXAMINED there has been fluid in his ears.  Those tubes totally worked, and I was so happy to have any sort of success along this very long and tedious journey.

In conclusion, Dr. Yu said that if none of this stuff worked, she would consider medicating him.  Not permanently, she assured me.  But maybe just for a little while to get him in the habit of sleeping through the night.  I didn't love that idea.  (Still don't.)  But I will admit that I'm getting pretty desperate at this point, so I'll probably try anything.  But first, we'd need to make sure he didn't still have sleep apnea.  Dr. Yu explained that if you have breathing problems, the last thing you want to do is administer any medication that can slow down your breathing even more.  Hopefully having his tonsils removed fixed that, but we couldn't be sure without doing... another sleep study!  Colton was thrilled-- he thought the sleep study was the most fun he'd ever had and was totally hoping for another one!

They managed to squeeze us in before the end of the month, so it was all covered by insurance.  Phew!

This time around, we were doing it through UVA Hospital (last time it was with Martha Jefferson).  I have now learned that UVA is twice as expensive, but the room totally sucks.  So if you ever have to do a sleep study in Charlottesville, I cannot recommend Martha Jefferson enough!  Go with them!!!

Anyway, this time I spent the night with Colton.  He wanted it to be fair.  And Craig had scouts, so he couldn't really go anyway. 

This is...  NOT the Hilton.  UVA, you are so lame.

Back to being fully wired again!

With leg wires, too!  What fun!

The sleep study was a pain.  My in-laws came to the rescue again by babysitting AND bringing pizza for all of us, so I could focus on packing and cleaning the house.  Then I brought all the boys with me to the church (and met Craig with the pizza we hadn't eaten), dropped Bentley and Ryder off with Craig for Scouts, and took Colton with me to the hospital.  I was already exhausted!

He slept okay, but was getting over a cold and had a couple coughing fits in the night-- at 11pm and 2am.  So I got to be awake for all that.  And then they woke us up promptly at 6am and we could go home!  We had Colton shower and try to wash all paste out of his hair, and then I took him and Camille to Waffle House to reward him for doing so great.  (With Martha Jefferson, they cover the Hilton breakfast, too!  What a rip off this was!)

They told us it would be three weeks before we got the results.

In the meantime, we got to work on Dr. Yu's suggestions AND we moved Bentley into Colton's room while his bedroom was being painted. 

AND IT WORKED!  He started sleeping through the night!  It was AMAZING.  He quickly accumulated nine stickers and got three trips to the dollar store out of it!  Craig and I were in heaven!

But then I finished painting and Bentley went back to his room and (big mistake, I see now) I tried to up the ante by suggesting Colton shoot for earning a small Lego set by getting 10 stickers.  And he stopped sleeping through the night at all.  We went a whole week with very little sleep and got right back to being so frustrated.

So we sat down and talked about it.  A lot.  Sometimes in the middle of the night with me almost falling asleep as I stood over his bed trying to discuss what was scaring him this time.  We went back to the dollar store reward plan.

And this last week, he's been sleeping again.  He's up to 7 stickers now.  He might get that Lego set after all...

The sleep study results came today and everything was normal, no more sleep apnea.  So I think we're just trying to train away this bad habit.  And like any bad habit, you're bound to have some setbacks.  But if we can just keep moving in the general direction of SLEEPING, I'll be happy.

Hurray for stickers?  And the dollar store?

And may you never take for granted a single, thorough night's sleep.  It is such a gift.